Bernardo Silva wants Manchester City to tackle away woes
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva said his side must improve their away form if they are to challenge for the English Premier League title next season.
Silva's comments came after City lost 1-0 to Southampton yesterday morning (Singapore time) at St Mary's - their third away defeat following the 2-1 loss at Chelsea and the 2-0 Derby defeat at Manchester United in March.
In fact, seven of nine EPL defeats this season have come away from the Etihad and Silva pointed to mistakes made as the reason for City's away woes.
"Of course, it's always better to play at home, a place where we're used to be," Silva told BBC's Match of the Day 2.
"Normally, we are used to teams playing very deep against us... they started the game trying to press us high and sometimes it is difficult, because they are a very intense and physical team, so congratulations to them.
"But no excuses, we need to improve next season if we want to win again the EPL."
The total of nine league defeats is the most City manager Pep Guardiola, who previously coached Barcelona and Bayern Munich, has ever had in a single campaign.
A confounded Guardiola is struggling to understand why his team have scored so many goals and limited the opposition to so few chances, but have still lost nine EPL matches this season.
City dominated possession (74 per cent) and peppered the Saints goal with 26 shots. However, striker Che Adams sealed victory for 13th-placed Southampton with a sumptuous long-range strike.
"We're leading in goals. We create a lot of chances and we concede less... but we lost a lot of games," said Guardiola.
"It's difficult even for me to find a reason why but you have to insist and talk about the game, the way they play and try to do more, concede as few as possible and score up front.
IMPROVE
"We played really well, but... we make one mistake, they punish us. Losing a lot of games, you cannot compete to win EPL. We need to improve."
Guardiola's counterpart Ralph Hasenhuettl said Southampton's display yesterday was the best his side have produced at home during his 18 months at the club.
"When you want to take something against such an opponent, you have to run more, sprint more, fight more, be brave and also have a little bit of luck," the Austrian said.
"We showed a lot of passion and we got what we deserved." - REUTERS
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